This is Google's (GOOGL -2.23%) and Apple's (AAPL 0.04%) world, and we're just living in it. A whopping 17.4 million Android and iOS devices were activated on Christmas Day, according to Flurry Analytics, a mobile trends tracker that arrives at estimates by monitoring its database of more than 260,000 apps.
How big is 17.4 million? Well, its 150% more than the number of Android and iOS devices that were activated on Christmas Day of last year.
This is great news for Google and Apple, naturally. Developers will continue to flock to their platforms. For Apple, that means more hardware and App Store revenue. For Google, that translates into Google Play app revenue, but also easy access to push online ads.
Why is anybody else even trying? The two-headed iOS and Android monster is padding its lead with every passing day. Things may not always remain that way, but it doesn't seem as if this situation will change anytime soon. As long as developers go where the buyers are, buyers will keep going to where the apps are hanging out.
Briefly in the news
And now let's take a quick look at some of the other stories that shaped our week.
- Research In Motion (BB -2.96%) is selling NewBay -- its cloud-services unit -- for a little more than half of what it paid for it last year. Does that turn BlackBerry into RedBerry?
- Baidu (BIDU 0.74%) moved higher after introducing a Siri-like app for Android mobile phones in China, allowing users to use voice requests to control their handsets.
- Netflix's (NFLX 1.44%) Christmas Eve outage was unfortunate, but it could've been worse: Gigli and Pluto Nash could have been the only titles available.
